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Arduino Xylophone

Introduction: Arduino Xylophone

I made a xylophone that uses an Arduino Mega to detect when a note is struck, and generate MIDI output. This project is wondeful because I essentially made a xylophone, a drumkit, and any other MIDI controlled sound instrument, with one tool. The following steps will outline what I used to make this xylophone.

Step 1: You Will Need...

To construct the xylophone I used the following parts from Radioshack:

Step 2: Free the Piezos, Then Solder Longer Leads.

For this project, I used piezo elements to detect when each note is struck on the xylophone. These piezos detect vibration, or a knock. Often the elements come in a housing, to protect the disc from being bent or smashed - but for this project I needed to remove them from their plastic.

By gently pressing around the edges with my fingers, you could hear the glue crack apart from the plastic, I loosened the bottom of the casing. Carefully, I insterted a precision flat-head screw driver, and popped the bottom of the case off.

The piezo element could then be removed from the outside of the housing.

Because I am using an Arduino Mega Board, I could have up to 16 Analog inputs, or 16 Piezos. I decided to just include an octave & a half, 12 notes, so I used 12 piezos.

After they were free from their case, I soldered longer wires to each piezo element, to prepare them to be inserted into the xylophone. When I was done soldering longer leads on to each piezo, I wrapped my solder points with heat shrink or electrical tape.

Step 3: The Bars and Housing.

I used CorelDraw to draft vector files that would guide the laser cutter for the housing and bars of the xylophone.

The acrylic bars were each 10x2 inches. Each bar has two holes in them that will guide a machine screw through the bar, and mount to the top panel of the wooden housing.

The wooden housing I designed is 10.5x30x3 inches. It forms a shallow box that supports the electronics embedded within it. I used woodglue and a cotton swab to secure all of the corners, and allowed 24 hours to cure before I sanded down all of the edges.

The CorelDraw file for the base housing is attached to this step.

Attachments

Step 4: Attach the Piezos to the Bars

I threaded the Piezo wires through the middle holes in the top panel of the housing. Then, I centered the piezo element on each acrylic bar, and used 2 inch blue masking tape to adhere the piezo to the bar.

Step 5: Attach the Bars to the Top Panel.

I used 1 1/2" machine screws and nuts to secure the bars to the wooden paneling.

To prevent excessive shake or vibration on each bar, I decided to use vinyl tubing as a shock absorber on each machine screw. With 12 bars, I used 24 machine screws and nuts, and 24 3/4" lengths of vinyl tubing. Thread the machine screw through the bar, then the vinyl, and slip it into the paneling. When the screw was through the panel, I was able to twist on the nut to fully secure it to the panel.

All of these should only be finger-tight, to avoid stress on the paneling, or on the bar.

Step 6: Build the Circuit.

Before connecting the piezos to the Arduino, I connected a 1-megohm resistor in parallel to the Piezo element to limit the voltage and current produced by the piezo, and to protect the analog input ports on the Arduino. On the PCB, I marked with a permanent marker which piezo goes to each analog input port on the Arduino. I also made the same markings on the back of the top wooden panel.

After I soldered the resistors into place, I ran a small jumper wire from one end of the resistor, to the longest rail on the PCB, and designated it my ground rail. Next, I soldered all of the piezos' ground wires into place, in line wtih the same end of each grounded resistor. The positive lead from the piezos is soldered in to the same rail as the other end of each resistor.

I cut 12 lengths of green wire to be my "signal wire" to the Arduino. Each signal wire is soldered into the same positive resisted rail of the piezo.

Step 7: Connecting to the Arduino

I took all of the signal wires, and the ground wire running from the PCB and marked each one with blue masking tape, writing which port each wire was designated to. I then fed all of the marked single core wire into the corresponding ports of the Arduino.

All remaining Analog ports must be grounded! Otherwise it will affect your serial output from the arduino. I used 4 black wires, running from the ground rail of the PCB directly to the open analog ports of the Mega board. (A12, A13, A14, and A15)

Step 8: Power and Communication.

The Arduino can be powered via USB, which doubles as a communication port. I ran a USB cable through the housing of the xylophone. By drilling a small hole, that was big enough for the ends of the cable, I could hide most of the USB cord in the housing.

I drilled a second hole to hold my mallots.

Step 9: Serial to Midi

To get the xylophone coupled with my comptuer I used software called Hairless. It converts the serial out signal from the Arduino into a MIDI signal that programs like GarageBand, Logic, and Ableton can read and record. Be sure that the bridge is running before you try and import MIDI data from the xylophone.

Note: Disable the bridge while trying to update the sketch on the Arduino board. You cannot have the bridge running while trying to communicate to the board from the Arduino software.

Step 10: Jam It!

After you are up and running, you can play the xylophone like drums. Record your beat track. Then kick change the MIDI instrument to a bass synth, and record a rhythm track. Finally turn it back into a xylophone and create a melody track for the best song ever. This thing is a lot of fun!

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57 Comments

OK, so I have adapted the code to accommodate 36 keys. There were a couple of errors in the code, but they served to educate me on the commands. I have bought the Arduino Due, and a multiplexer. The Due has 12 analog inputs. Using the Arduino IDE I was able to verify the code for my board. It works and uploads flawlessly.

So far, I have correctly modified for the number of notes and range (F2 to E5). I am building a three-octave rig. I think I need one more (F5), but this will be no problem.

Here is he first section of the code. I have questions.

I have not yet done the physical build. However, it is my understanding that there is a bit of velocity sensitivity with the piezos. This is why resistors are needed across their terminals. They are so sensitive that they would otherwise produce very high values when struck. Doug Beney at diy.midcontroller.com discusses this in just enough more detail to not put a neophyte like me to sleep.

Hi Leond31! I'm really interested in building the same thing like you. I just want 32 keys, but it should work like yours I think.I would really appreciate it, if you would contact me to exchange some of your experiences.Sorry for my bad english, greetings from Germany!

I'm a bit late to your comment, but here's an answer: No, they would not be velocity sensitive. Piezos are sensitive to a sharp taps, and then they'll produce a spike of electricity. It's possible you could get some minor velocity sensitivity, but I wouldn't think it would be very reliable. As for the drumkit, I wouldn't think so, but because I haven't done it myself, here's another instructable showing just that:

I'm not so sure; I've got a system set up here with piezo sensors connected to an arduino uno and I'm getting variable input between 0-150 based and pretty responsive to how hard I tap. I see no reason it can't be velocity sensitive.

I know I'm a bit late to your comment, but hope it can help. It'll work, but you might need to modify the code and circuit slightly. However, the FSRs are quite a bit more expensive (That particular one is 16$, imagine that times 12), and on the other hand, piezos are pretty inexpensive on eBay. The only benefit I can see from using the FSRs would be you'd be able to output velocity. Hope that helps!